Tackling the Challenge

In the last post, I described the framework of Lisa's training challenge. In this post, I'll talk about the plan for tackling it. To summarize her challenges;

• Senior dog
• Hearing & Vision Impaired
• Mobility and Coordination Need Improvement
• Has No Concept of Expectations
• Not Potty Trained
• Doesn't Understand Command + Action = Something Good
• Needs Constructive Mental Stimulation
  
• Deprogramming 11 Years of Experiences
• How to Just Enjoy Life as a Dog

While this laundry lists seems long and daunting, it can be broken down quite easily. The first three bullets are entirely physical. The next three are based purely around training, while the last three are a bit ethological.

Starting with the first three physical bullets. There's not much to be done about Lisa being an older dog other than make sure she's as healthy as she can be. Second, her hearing and vision impairments present challenges in training. For a hearing impaired dog, you can't always give verbal corrections, especially when a dog doesn't even know what a correction is or why it is being given. Lisa is a prime example of this. She has a penchant for scratching at my walls. I don't understand the behavior, but she will just walk over to a few choice walls in the house and start scratching away. She will also do this same behavior in her crate and on the floor, too. This behavior is unacceptable in a household environment, so corrections and redirection must be given. Just like with a puppy, you have to physically instruct them first, while providing a verbal cue, i.e. No scratching. Catching the behavior before it starts is even more imperative; I think you gain more ground by catching them a half second before they start. It surprises the dog every time, "How'd they know I was gonna do that?" "Hey Buddy, you're not the only one who observe and take notes around here!" :-)

Conversely, hollering from across the room, "No scratching!" isn't going get very far with a deaf or partially deaf dog. Sadly, shining a light doesn't do much to alert a dog whose vision is impaired. Lisa can see, she just can't see that well, She tends to lose track of people and sometimes where she is. It takes her a second or two to reorient herself. For awhile, I wasn't sure if she could hear at all, guess she's was just practicing that Beardie "You talking to me?" discriminating hearing. Creativity is the key to overcoming both of these obstacles.

Lastly, her mobility and coordination are areas that have been under rehabilitation since she came under my care. Our walks up and down my sloped yard, plus a trip up and down the stairs, intermixed with very short neighborhood walks to build stamina have all worked wonders. Lisa is stronger. She has short spurts of puppy-like running. Her front legs flail up in an almost pouncing sort of way when she runs. It's so cute. To help with coordination, Calvaletti poles seemed like a good idea. After all, it's what we use to train both horses and puppies to learn foot placement. Some balance exercises were also thrown into the mix as were agility exercises. Agility exercises consisted of her trying to keep up with me as I trotted or walked just a foot or two ahead of her. I would snake a few times through the yard around obstacles and such. Her job was to follow me. These I've kept to a minimum as building strength was the first priority. Once the strength has built up enough, then I can focus more on building better coordination and stamina.